After Cadillac's app Super Cruise, Buick updated the eCruise Pro's advanced smart driving features on the GL8 Avenir for the first time via OTA.
Although this update mainly increases the driver command lane change (ILC) function, optimizes the lane center intelligent cruise (LCC) and traffic congestion assistance system (TJA) out of hand detection time, the function is not much, but it opens the door for Buick to upgrade the driving assistance system through OTA.
Driver Command Lane Change (ILC)
Since December 2020, Buick has mainly upgraded its vehicle and machine systems through OTAs. Through a full year of OTA upgrades, most of Buick's models have added Himalaya, smart home, personality home, free listening, brand APP and owner tips.
Starting in 2022, the OTA upgrade of the intelligent driver assistance system will begin to become buick's next priority.
The eCruise Pro is an upgrade from the previous intelligent driver assistance technology, including adaptive cruise, lane keeping, lane departure warning and so on. Thanks to the newer Mobileye EyeQ4 chip, many Buick models actually have the ability to drive intelligently, but they haven't completely unsealed it.
As for the gap between Buick eCruise Pro and Cadillac Super Cruise, on the one hand, different car series, brands, positioning, need to adapt to different intelligent driving systems; on the other hand, Super Cruise emphasizes "Hands Off" - off-hand intelligent driving, although Chinese regulations do not allow completely off-hand, but Super Cruise actually has this ability, and eCruise Pro focuses on optimizing practical functions.
The upper limit of the hardware
Buick GL8 Avenir and Lu Zun and other models are equipped with Mobileye EyeQ4 intelligent image recognition chip, which is widely used. The NOPs equipped with NIO ES6 and EC6 are also based on this chip.
Mobileye has a different strategy from NVIDIA and Qualcomm. Mobileye sells a black box that integrates software and hardware, and through the recognition and judgment of the image, gives instructions, and car companies develop software based on instructions. Enterprises using this chip choose software algorithms to develop themselves, and through continuous OTA upgrades, they can achieve more calm and accurate execution of instructions.
The same goes for Buick.
EyeQ4 theoretically supports L3 level automatic driving - "the support for driving strategy and vehicle all-round detection and the replacement and upgrading of lane detection technology, as well as the collection and integration of map information, can support L3 level automatic driving up to the highest", so GL8 Avenir can also finally achieve L3 automatic driving through OTA.
However, the theory is only theory, according to the positioning of the chip and the future development of the idea, Buick is more likely to choose to develop around this chip in the direction of "better L2".
At present, this chip can realize several major functions such as high-speed assisted driving, congestion assisted driving, road automatic holding, turn signal control lane change, and road sign recognition.
Buick's driver-command lane change and congestion/smart cruise features through this OTA push mean that Buick believes that the algorithm of this feature has evolved to the point where it can be pushed safely.
TJA Traffic Congestion Assist System
Around this chip, GL8 Avenir is also equipped with a series of radars and cameras, including a 100° ultra-wide angle HD wide-sight forward camera, 5 high-performance millimeter wave radars, 12 ultrasonic radars, 4 megapixel HD panoramic cameras and 1 2 megapixel wide-angle HD camera to achieve comprehensive perception of the three-dimensional environment.
Long-distance millimeter wave radar detection distance reaches 200 meters, to achieve adaptive cruise and other follow-up object recognition and car-following distance measurement work, the remaining 4 close-range millimeter-wave radar, detection distance of 90 meters, detection angle of 150 °, to achieve blind spot detection and other functions. Millimeter-wave radar can penetrate dust, rain and snow, and work even in bad weather.
100 ° ultra-wide angle camera, detection distance of 150 meters, used to identify vehicles, pedestrians, lane lines and other information, to determine the distance and movement status of pedestrian targets. Functions such as a 360° surround view camera and automatic parking are realized by fusing 4 cameras with 12 ultrasonic radars.
Differences between LLC and TJA
In the popular sense, ACC adaptive cruise with lane keeping can achieve intelligent driving in all road conditions, but because the vehicle trajectory is uncontrollable, the actual experience is not as good as expected, such as frequent dragon painting.
In order to avoid vehicles "drawing dragons" in the same lane, lane centering technology has begun to be applied. Under the premise that the lane is clearly visible, the vehicle is always driving in the middle of the vehicle, and only needs to adjust the distance between the front and rear of the car to achieve a certain degree of intelligent driving. This is llLC lane center intelligent endurance driving.
When the LLC prompt is met on the Buick GL8 instrument cluster or HUD, the LLC function can be activated by the button on the steering wheel. The test LLC function mainly focuses on the control of the distance of the car and the control accuracy of the lane center.
LCC lane center (corner)
The GL8 can set the endurance speed as well as the three-speed front car pitch. The driver gently grasps the steering wheel, and the GL8 adjusts the speed according to the braking distance of the car in front of the car, and stabilizes the distance in front of the car. Even if other interspersed vehicles suddenly appear in the middle of the journey, the GL8 will automatically adopt a gentle braking action.
The reason for this is that the GL8 sensor will judge the speed and path of the surrounding vehicles through the radar, judge the intention, and prepare in advance.
When the road surface lacks road markings, such as traffic light intersections, the GL8 will automatically follow the trajectory of the car in front, at which time the HUD steering wheel logo will switch to blue, reminding the driver that the LLC function is still on, but the clear lane is not recognized at present. After the lane is re-identified, the vehicle will automatically re-follow the vehicle in front of it according to the cruising speed setting.
In the actual experience, especially in the lane with a large curvature of frequent traffic lights, the GL8 can still be well controlled in the same lane, indicating that the chip and sensor work accuracy is very high.
TJA traffic congestion assistance is logically the same as LLC, the difference is the scenario, LLC is more suitable for medium and high-speed roads, vehicles can keep far behind. Long press the control button, LCC lane center intelligent cruise switch to TJA traffic congestion assist, GL8 with closer to the car, acceleration brake is more sensitive.
Interesting security logic
The core focus of this GL8 upgrade is the driver's command to change lanes. During the LLC's work, the driver only needs to flick the steering lever and the vehicle can complete the automatic lane change.
The toggle here includes two operations, the big turn signal and the small turn signal, each dial is a command, and the change of lane needs to be re-dialed.
When humans drive vehicles to parallel lines, there are two methods of overtaking lane change and brake lane change. Gl8 tends to use the latter, when the driver toggle the steering lever, the vehicle will automatically detect the side of the rear of the car, by judging the speed and trajectory, decide whether to directly parallel or wait for the line. The whole process is very skillful and will not hesitate.
If one side is a solid line or there is no central barrier, the vehicle can detect and suspend the parallel until it is suitable for the parallel situation.
If the parallel line is a dotted line and becomes a solid line during the process, the GL8 will quickly abort the parallel line, return to the original lane, cancel the parallel command, and if you need to merge again, you need to re-dial the steering lever.
ILC commands lane change
At the same time, gl8 has stepped up driver monitoring. Compared with the previous torque detection method to identify the driver's hands, the GL8 uses a capacitive steering wheel to ensure that the driver's hands are always on the steering wheel.
To this end, when the TJA congestion intelligent driving is turned on, the driver's hands are separated from the steering wheel, the GL8 will not follow the front car to automatically follow the car, only if the hands do not leave the steering wheel, the vehicle will activate the full speed domain to follow the car from beginning to end.
At the beginning of the new year, with the OTA pushing the eCruise Pro intelligent driving assistance system, Buick opened up a whole new track. This is not the end, but a starting point, which means that the Buick brand will start the large-scale intelligent driving system equipping and upgrading work in the future. With the OTA model mastering, LLC and TJA gradually optimized, more and more of Buick's models will plug in intelligent wings and practice "wisdom and thousands of miles".
Figure | Sourced from the web
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